Eureka double-murder case prelim reset due to illness

The Thursday preliminary hearing scheduled in the Eureka double-homicide case was delayed for two weeks during an intervention hearing at the Humboldt County Superior Courthouse today due to Assistant District Attorney Kelly Neel having been out of the office due to illness.

The defendant, 28-year-old Vincent Earnest Sanchez, stood and glanced around the courtroom wearing an orange jail jumpsuit with his restrained hands held before him while the prosecution made a request to Judge Dale Reinholtsen to continue the case by two weeks in order to give Neel the proper time to prepare.

Representing Sanchez, Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Dixon also submitted her request for a two-week continuance and asked that the new preliminary hearing date be set in the near future.

"No more than two weeks would be our request," Dixon said.

Sanchez is accused of fatally shooting his half-brother Lance Delbert Henry, 25, and Freshwater Farms owner Richard "Rick" Charles Storre, 60, at Storre's home on the 2100 block of Harris Street in late March. Both Henry and Sanchez had been living at Storre's home for an extended period of time before the homicides occurred.

Before ending the hearing, Reinholtsen handed Dixon a sealed envelope of subpoenaed records from Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California.

Dixon said the preliminary hearing is expected to last two half-days.

Sanchez is set to appear in court for an intervention hearing on Aug. 11 at 3 p.m. and for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 13 at 8:30 a.m.